My Opinion on the Race / Class Restrictions

Community General Discussion
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First a little context on my opinion:
Hi! I’m Liianas, I joined the game in Cataclysm, and have played pretty consistently ever since except for the first 2 patches of Shadowlands
When I joined WoW, I was immediately engrossed in the massive universe and all the stories it had to tell. I played through the questing zones of every expansion at the time, and liked Burning Crusade the most. And I keep it to PvE Content most days.

I do, by all means, consider myself a fan of WoW’s Lore, I would ask my guildmates questions about the world when I was new, I’ve read the books, I’ve watched just about every nobbel video on youtube. I’ve got my PHD In the entire history of a fake universe. etc. etc.

Now for my Opinion on the Race / Class restriction issue:

Class Race Restrictions should be removed, and here's why!

I First started posting on these forums under the pretenses of giving players more choice, I despised the issues caused by the Faction Divide, and to me the solution was incredibly obvious, Just remove the restrictions, and you fix the problem.
As It turns out, such a simple fix was a disliked idea by a very vocal group of players who thought, and argued that the presence of restrictions gives the game Flavor.

That argument, Inherently is where a lot of players stake their claim: “The presence of restrictions gives the game flavor”

To some Degree, this is very true. The fact that Draenei can’t be Warlocks naturally inclines a player to ask “Why Can’t Draenei be Warlocks?” which will eventually lead the player down some of the longest roots of World of Warcraft’s lore. Helping them gain a better appreciation of the story and universe.

Many such restrictions like this exist in WoW and serve to add depth to the story and universe, and yet. I feel like they should be removed.

The Player should have the Freedom of Choice to do what they want:
The player behind the keyboard should be free to defy convention. The Truth of the matter is, that for every player like me who is SUPER immersed in WoW’s lore, there’s probably 100 players that simply do not care. Probably more like 1000.

I don’t think Elves should be Shamans, but a lot of people are basic, and only want to play as their blonde hair, blue eyed elves. They should have the option to do this.

I Don’t think Goblins or Gnomes should have Religious classes, but there are plenty of people who come up with clever ideas as to why they should. They should have the freedom to do whatever they want.

I don’t think Draenei or Mag’har Orcs should be Warlocks. But there are some players who simply do not care about this history or the lore, and want to player THEIR class on THEIR race. And they should have the choice to do this.

This isn’t ruining WoW’s universe like people say it is, it’s all about giving the player the freedom to do what they want.

But Here's the Catch

WoW Should take MORE strides to invest players in the history of their races, WoW should do its best to encourage players to learn about the Lore of their race and what makes them special. WoW should include more Racial questlines that explain these new Race / Class combinations, Or hell, even just some quest dialogue about how your Race / Class combination is particularly unique. WoW should make players KNOW that their Race / Class combination is playing to the archetype, or playing against the archetype.

I would even accept simple text in the Character creation screen to the effect of:
“This Race is Iconic for its: Warriors! Shamans! and Warlocks!”
Even something as simple as that would make me happy.

Tl;dr: Racial Restrictions can go, but encourage players to learn more about their race.

Thank you for Reading! If you can put up with my Walls of Text! <3

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Insert a TLDR.

But as an aside, there’s nothing in the lore that says Draenei can’t be Warlocks. There’s nothing in the lore that actively restricts races from becoming certain classes (or anything under the umbrella of those classes).

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she did its

Class Race Restrictions should be removed

same as all the others so add this one to the bin w/ the ones against it its the same topics but ppl dont wanna get lost in the 780 posts

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I didn’t say that.
I said that the restriction will cause players to ask “Why can’t Draenei be Warlocks?” And that would hopefully lead a player to learning about the Draenei and their history.
Ultimately explaining why Draenei aren’t warlocks.

If the restriction goes away, I want there to be some other in game method to encourage players to learn about their race.

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I feel like the hard coded rules should be respected unless by some major shift in the narrative or lore. It’s like everyone is running around in an established world with their own home brewed fan fic character. How do you properly roleplay in a game that doesn’t even respect its own lore?

But this is hardly the first time, this is just the next bandwagon to hate blizzard.

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There’s nothing to say regular Draenei can’t become warlocks, that’s true. But Lightforged Draenei are pretty explicitly filled, imbued, and otherwise possessed by the Light. They shouldn’t really be able to be warlocks, given that we historically know that even though Void and Light are opposites, Light does a lot more fighting against Death and Fel. (See classic exorcism gaining a bonus to undead and demons, but not aberrations)

Same thing with Undead Druids. Life and Death are opposites in the grand structure of things. How is a being held together by death magic ever going to harness life magic? A big part of being a druid is being one with nature, but according to nature the Undead should be rotting in their graves.

These are the kind of restrictions I don’t want to see lifted. The cultural reasons a race wouldn’t gravitate towards a class don’t affect 100% of its population. But a physical restriction does affect 100% of a race’s population, and the game should reflect that.

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As someone who has Roleplayed in WoW for a decently long time. You can never escape this. Especially with Blood Elves.
Too many RP characters want to be the next Med’an.
And I will personally point and laugh at any Void Elf paladins I see.

But those players should be FREE to make those characters
And I should be FREE to point and laugh.

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There is. Eredar that joined Sargeras were infused with Fel and became Man’ari.

If a Draenei uses Fel, they will become Man’ari as well. Man’ari are enemy units associated with Sargeras.

It’s not a hard path to follow.

This is all I’ve been asking for here.

If there is a reason why Draenei can suddenly use Fel and be Warlocks, give us that explanation.

That’s not true, scroll up and read my answer. They will become Man’ari and not be PCs anymore.

Tauren and Draenei not using Fel isn’t just a “cultural” thing. They literally can’t handle it and turn evil.

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I agree that there are some restrictions that aren’t cultural, but physical. Some races are entirely constructed out of one source of magic, and according to books like chronicles, should be a living antithesis to other forms of magic.
Void and Light, life and death. Etc.

Perhaps more grandiose explanation for those is needed. But ultimately players WILL complain.

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Can you provide a source that says what that even does? It does not seem to prevent them from being raised into deathknights. It did nothing to the lightforged dreadlord on the vindicaar. And void and light are opposites. Not Light and Fel. Fel would be just as problematic to them as Death, Order, and Life.

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Yeah, this is WoW. If someone wants to play as a human that is 50,000 years old…there is almost certainly a way to explain it. Not many limitations exist to begin with.

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I can’t wait until about 4 days from now when people completely forget about this topic and move on to the new flavor of the week. These threads are absolutely spam at this point.

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I would say that with lightforged and void elves, it goes beyond cultural and physical.
Both lightforged and void elves are formed organisations. You’re not born one, you have to choose to become one.

Lightforged warlocks and void elf paladins are sort of like vegans that only eat meat.

But i suppose that the completely nonsensical combos sorta have to happen as there arent that many and it would be odd to have only a couple of restrictions while everything else is available.

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Hey, I like to think my thread is well natured and has real heart behind it.
Don’t hold me responsible for the 400 different: “THIS GAME SUX” threads.

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100% agree. The best solution to both sides would be to open up race/classes to everyone but put a lot of focus texts on those that choose an unorthodox path.

I would even suggest having non important buildings kick you out if you are a certain combo with texts like “we don’t accept ur fel infused self here go somewhere else traitor” (would be super cool if this was for draeni and Maghar orcs especially lightforged)

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This is fair. And a reason why these two allied “races” should have been customization options. Howevers. Not all vegans tell the truth and sneak it in or otherwise lie on camera to fit into the group or define their version of vegan differently. This is exactly what warlocks do so it still works out :slight_smile:

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This is true. Light and Void are opposites, not light and fel.
But the Lightforged are defined by their zealous, militaristic, outright fanatical oath to destroy all demonkind.
They don’t seem like the type to use, or even abet the existence of demons.

Same with Mag’Har. To be Mag’Har means you are uncorrupted, pure-blooded.
If you use the fel, you are corrupted and no longer Mag’Har.

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And what are they doing now that the legion is gone? They can still do this. They can still do this while using fel, if they use fel at all. Warlocks have more specs than just fel. Desto is at heart a fire mage with a few fel spells (Which I presume is using the chaos damage type because there is no fel damage) Neither of these groups are physically unable to use shadow, curses, soul magic or fel. Yes they might be looked down upon by their culture, but thats warlocks in general in a nutshell.

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But where does Warlocks use Fel?

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Yesssss! 100%. Encourage players to play to type. But don’t needlessly restrict players.

I’m a huge fan of the early Warcraft games. So I want to see Orc Shamans, High Elf Priests and Mages, Kaldorei Hunters and Druids.

But. I also think players should get to choose whatever they want.
Have the game recognize odd pairings in some way.